Female quotas on boards

I blogged last year about female quotas on boards and why women are a wise investment, following a talk I gave to the Financial Services Research Forum and the report I wrote for them. I won't present the business case again for female representation on boards but will repeat one key stat from a large study by Pepperdine University:


When a company had three women on the board of directors it outperformed the competition on all measures by at least 40%. 


A recent report on the same topic by Lord Davies, following extensive government consultation, starts off by saying:

"At the current rate of change it will take over 70 years to achieve gender-balanced boardrooms in the UK." 

Yet concludes that:
“We have chosen not to recommend quotas because we believe that board appointments should be made on the basis of business needs, skills and ability. But a more focused business-led approach can increase the number of women on company boards at a much faster rate than we have seen recently.” 


With these new 'recommendations' it might take no more than 69 years.